Size and Shape Effects in Optical Spectra of Silver and Gold Nanoparticles

Journal of Russian Laser Research - We report some theoretical results on the extinction, absorption, and scattering of light by individual silver and gold nanoparticles of different sizes and...     

Photochemical dynamics of indolylmaleimide derivatives

On-the-fly nonadiabatic ab initio molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out for three anionic species of indolylmaleimides (3-(1H-3-indolyl)-2,5-dihydro-1H-2,5-pyrroledione, IM) to clarify the mechanisms of photochemical reactions. The results are obtained for (i) a monovalent anion with a deprotonated indole NH group (IM(-)'), (ii) a monovalent anion with a deprotonated maleimide NH group (IM(-)') and (iii) a divalent anion with doubly deprotonated indole and the maleimide NH groups (IM(2-)). Quantum chemical calculations are treated at the three state averaged complete-active space self-consistent field level for 6 electrons in 5 orbitals with the cc-pVDZ basis set (CAS (6, 5) SCF/cc-pVDZ). Molecular dynamics simulations are performed with electronically nonadiabatic transitions included using the Zhu-Nakamura version of the trajectory surface hopping (ZN-TSH) method. It is found that the nonadiabatic transitions occur accompanied by the stretching and shrinking motions of the N(7)-C(8) bond in the case of IM(-)' and the C(11)-N(12) bond in IM(2-) rather than the twisting motion of the dihedral angle. We also found that the ultrafast S(2)→ S(1) nonadiabatic transitions occur through the conical intersection (CoIn) right after photoexcitation to S(2) in IM(-)' and IM(2-). Furthermore, the S(1)→ S(0) nonadiabatic transitions are found to take place in IM(-)'. It is concluded that IM(2-) would mainly contribute to the photoemission, because the S(1)← S(0) and S(2)← S(0) transitions of IM(-)' are dipole-forbidden transitions and, moreover, IM(2-) is found to be the only species to stay in the S(1) state without non-radiative decay.     

Laser control of electronic transitions of wave packet by using quadratically chirped pulses

An effective scheme is proposed for the laser control of wave packet dynamics. It is demonstrated that by using specially designed quadratically chirped pulses, fast and nearly complete excitation of wave packet can be achieved without significant distortion of its shape. The parameters of the laser pulse can be estimated analytically from the Zhu-Nakamura theory of nonadiabatic transition. If the wave packet is not too narrow or not too broad, then the scheme is expected to be utilizable for multidimensional systems. The scheme is applicable to various processes such as simple electronic excitation, pump-dump, and selective bond breaking, and it is actually numerically demonstrated to work well by taking diatomic and triatomic molecules (LiH, NaK, H(2)O) as examples.     

Absorption and Scattering of Light by Silver and Gold Nanodisks and Nanoprisms

We study the influence of the shape of silver and gold nanoparticles on the spectra of absorption and scattering of the optical-range electromagnetic radiation. We perform numerical calculations of the cross sections of absorption and scattering of light on the basis of the FDTD method for the particles having the shape of a disk and a triangular prism. We establish that the positions of plasmon resonance peaks and the spectral distributions of intensities differ significantly for nanoparticles of different shapes even when the characteristic sizes of the particles are equal. The calculations carried out thus demonstrate that, along with the size and material of the plasmonic particle, its shape is yet another factor that essentially determines its optical features. The results of the study can be utilized in the development of the spectroscopic method of determining the shape of the metal nanoparticles and the quantitative estimate of their characteristic sizes.     

Threshold Effect in the Photoemission of Composite Nanoantennas Irradiated by Intense Femtosecond Laser Pulses

JETP Letters - A new mechanism has been proposed for the formation of energy spectra of photoelectrons by above-threshold photoemission of composite nanoantennas with small gaps between elements...     

Particle Shape Effects in the Extinction Spectra of Gold and Silver Nanoparticles

Particle shape effects in the absorption and scattering spectra of gold and silver nanoparticles are studied for optical-range radiation. Numerical calculations of extinction cross section are performed using the FDTD approach for particles of three shapes: disks, triangular prisms, and triradial-base prisms. It is established that the spectra of nanoparticles of different shapes differ qualitatively even if they are of the same characteristic dimensions. The obtained results can be used to develop a spectroscopic procedure for determining the shape of metallic nanoparticles and producing quantitative estimates of their characteristic dimensions.     

Semiclassical theory of electronically nonadiabatic chemical dynamics: incorporation of the Zhu-Nakamura theory into the frozen Gaussian propagation method

The title theory is developed by combining the Herman-Kluk semiclassical theory for adiabatic propagation on single potential-energy surface and the semiclassical Zhu-Nakamura theory for nonadiabatic transition. The formulation with use of natural mathematical principles leads to a quite simple expression for the propagator based on classical trajectories and simple formulas are derived for overall adiabatic and nonadiabatic processes. The theory is applied to electronically nonadiabatic photodissociation processes: a one-dimensional problem of H2+ in a cw (continuous wave) laser field and a two-dimensional model problem of H2O in a cw laser field. The theory is found to work well for the propagation duration of several molecular vibrational periods and wide energy range. Although the formulation is made for the case of laser induced nonadiabatic processes, it is straightforwardly applicable to ordinary electronically nonadiabatic chemical dynamics.     

Effects of Plasmon–Exciton Interaction in the Spectra of Light Absorption by Hybrid Systems Consisting of Two- and Three-Layer Organometallic Nanoparticles

The effects of plasmon-exciton interaction on the spectra of light absorption by hybrid systems of two- and three-layer nanoparticles that consist of a metallic nucleus, the outer shells of ordered molecular dye J-aggregates, and an intermediate passive organic spacer between them is analyzed theoretically. It is established that the type of the absorption spectra and the efficiency of a near-field electromagnetic coupling between the particles in the system depends largely on the distance between the centers of concentric spheres and the direction of light polarization.     

Extinction Spectra of Bilayer Organometallic Nanoplatelets

Spectra of light extinction by metal nanoprisms and nanostars coated with molecular aggregates of organic dyes are calculated and theoretically analyzed. Qualitatively different nature of the spectra of organometallic nanoparticles under study is established when using J-aggregates of various cyanine dyes as their capping layer, as well as silver and gold as the cores. This results from the implementation of various plasmon-exciton coupling modes in the systems under consideration.